Travel Planner – Things To Do Before Proceeding on a Trip

If you are going an outing, it is necessary to plan it well. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to these TWO very important facets of any trip-

1. Event management

2. Administrative details

Event Management

· Arranging the finances – This is a most crucial part, especially for those who are not rich and famous. Plan the type of services, based on your financial limits and add or cut down upon your itinerary or go for luxury, economy or budget holiday.

· Listing out itinerary- Make a list of events during the complete itinerary and go over it a few times to avoid clash of dates and timings.

· Getting bookings organized – Based on the itinerary, get the bookings of travel (air/train/bus/car) as well as staying (hotels) done. Do take time to check out the cancellation policies and keep the telephone numbers handy.

· Go through legal requirements carefully- It is important to go through the requirements of visa, local addresses, embassy contact numbers, etc so that you don’t get stranded due to lack of any connected formalities at any place.

· Collection of information- Before you start a journey, you ought to have all the information about each place in your itinerary. This would include road maps when going by road, taxi fares, places to visit and their distances from your place of stay, eating out plans, need for special arrangements like medical facility in case of any problem, etc.

Administrative details

Do keep your baggage light. Pack your bags in a way that they are well within the permissible limits for air travel. This is a very important part since your comfort level would hinge upon it.

Based upon the itinerary, check out the likely weather conditions at that particular time of the year to plan your wardrobe. Take items that are easy to wash and wear, so that you can make do with three to four pairs of everything.

Make a checklist of items that you would be carrying. Make it a point to include a small pack that has things like a piece of twine, clothes clips, hangers, padlocks, metal fasteners for securing luggage, soap, jack-knife, small pair of scissors, nail cutters, phone chargers, emergency flashlight, anti-mosquito cream, medicated band-aids, antibiotic sprays, emergency medicines for common ailments, prescription medicines, etc. These often come handy and are not readily available since you would be in a new place and won’t know from where to get them.

Remember, you are going to a new place where the food may not suit you. Therefore, plan to carry biscuits or chocolates or dried / dehydrated items that you may want to use.